If Chip Kelly becomes the Panthers head coach, hes not gonna have Cam be the leading rusher like he is now

But despite all his success, there are those who still like to label his offense a gimmick, or, more practically, wonder if it's possible to run a spread offense in the NFL, given the beating a quarterback might endure.This misunderstands Kelly's attack. "I look for a quarterback who can run and not a running back who can throw. I want a quarterback who can beat you with his arm," Kelly explained at a coaches clinic in the spring of 2011, emphatically adding, "We are not a The Golden Calf of Bristol type of quarterback team. I am not going to run my quarterback 20 times on power runs."The numbers back him up. Marcus Mariota is third on Oregon's team in rushing, but he's far, far behind Barner and Thomas. In 2011, the Ducks finished the year fifth in the nation in rushing yards per game and ended with more than 4,000 on the year. Only 206 of those came from quarterback Darron Thomas. Compare that with The Golden Calf of Bristol, who led Florida in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns in each of the three seasons he was the starting quarterback in Urban Meyer's spread-option offense.Kelly explained that he merely needs a quarterback who, if the defense "forces" him to run, "can do it effectively."

Did it ever occur to you guys that there is some back channel dealings going on here, and that perhaps we have contacted some GM prospects that are currently with other organizations so they don't want anyone especially their ownership to know about it.

And that perhaps those GM candidates are quietly making phone calls to some coaches to see what kind of coaching staff they can put together if they are hired so they can move quickly when that day comes??

I think Kelly is a guy who could fully maximize the team and Cam's potential, in his modern read-option way, like a really refined version of what we've got going on now. Something that won't happen with Rivera and Chud behind the wheel.

I would personally like Kelly far more than most of our other options.

Come on. Who actually thinks that Kelly would run the exact same offense that he does in college? BTW Kellys offense is very run heavy as well.

The thing is Kelly runs his running backs out of the read option. That works well when you're playing against the Pac 12. Yet this is the NFL. If you want to run in the NFL, you need your backs to have vision and a running start toward the line. That doesn't happen in the read option. (Of course if you run the read option out of the pistol formation like Washington does, that would be closer to running in the traditional way) Also the best rushing attacks in the NFL, all have fullbacks leading the way. Clearly something we have missed ever since Hoover retired.

I'm a little surprised that many want to hire a guy who runs the read option as his main offense, right after wasting away this year running the exact same thing. Have we learn nothing from this season?

The thing is Kelly runs his running backs out of the read option. That works well when you're playing against the Pac 12. Yet this is the NFL. If you want to run in the NFL, you need your backs to have vision and a running start toward the line. That doesn't happen in the read option. (Of course if you run the read option out of the pistol formation like Washington does, that would be closer to running in the traditional way) Also the best rushing attacks in the NFL, all have fullbacks leading the way. Clearly something we have missed ever since Hoover retired.

I'm a little surprised that many want to hire a guy who runs the read option as his main offense, right after wasting away this year running the exact same thing. Have we learn nothing from this season?

Also, he most certainly will run the Oregon offense here in Carolina.

Jonathan Stewart seemed to do OK in that style of offense. So much so, he was a first round draft pick

kelly's zone read offense is a lot more complicated than the others that you might see. and while it is considered their base...that's not everything they do.

they start off with the zone read option to establish the passing game. it's a run first offense. remember just a couple years ago they were running an average of 300 yards per game. they use the run game to set up the pass. they use their zone read option to get the passing game established. once they do that, they start mixing it up. they'll add in play action (yes, they use that), bubble screens, bootlegs...whatever. the thing is they run them all out of just a couple formations in the backfield. inside zone read (between the tackles) and outside zone read (outside the tackles).

when they call that their "bread and butter" the don't mean it's the whole meal. they start out with that and try to make it obvious what they are doing. and they keep pushing it and eventually the defense starts to overload it...which is what kelly counts on. he's counting on the opposing defense countering it, but knows to do it they are going to be leaving some pretty nice holes and then thats when they start running their "complementary" plays...all from those couple basic formations.

while teams are working to stop the running play, they are overloading the box and leaving themselves open for passing plays. the read option is what sucks the defense in and makes them essentially suckers because it just leaves them open to be exploited other places. that's a different philosophy than others running it.

and why do they use the read option? let me ask this, why do teams run first? a lot of times it's to set up the pass and/or other things they want to do. that's exactly what kelly does with his core running plays. he chooses the read option over more traditional running plays because, well, as he puts it, four legs are better than two. if you see the RB and know he's going to run the ball, then what is the defense going to do? brace themselves for it.

if you have two possible runners in each play, who are you going to try and defend? and of course, like i said, teams set themselves up to try and stop it, but how do they do that? usually use an extra man or two and have probably one guy set up as a spy which essentially takes him out of the play...hence the zone read. the QB and in the case of kelly's team, the OLine reads not just what the DE is doing, but whoever is the best of the front 7, whether DT, DE, or LB. the QB and the OL set themselves up to take that player out of action and end up overloading the other side or whatever is left more open. again, they do all of this counting on the defense trying to stop it and when they try to stop it they take advantage of what the defense gives them.

and all of this happens so quickly defenses don't really have a chance to think about it or set themselves up for really anything. i saw this quote from a trojan CB a couple years ago about what they were facing when they got smacked around by the ducks.

"Their tempo is real fast, and they don't slow down the whole game," USC cornerback Shareece Wright said. "They didn't even run a lot of plays. They just run them to perfection and wait until the defense breaks down."

speaking of the trojans....one of the common assumptions is that sure, the ducks offense works against college teams, but it's unproven against NFL caliber DCs. well, that's not entirely true either. who is the DC for the trojans? none other than monte kiffin.

lets take a look at what this offense has done against kiffin's defense.

2011 (oregon lost this one 35-38, but again that doesn't matter in this discussion)
oregon had 462 total yards (265 rushing)
265 yards passing 1 TD and 1 INT
Kenjon Barner had 123 yards rushing and 2 TDs
James had 78 yards rushing and 1 TD
(top 2 rushers that week)

and if that's not enough...people keep mentioning how david shaw's stanford team beat oregon this year.

oregon beat them last year with shaw as coach and beat harbaugh's team the year before with who running stanford's defense? Vic Frikkin Fangio...the mastermind running their top NFL defense the last couple years.

The thing is Kelly runs his running backs out of the read option. That works well when you're playing against the Pac 12. Yet this is the NFL. If you want to run in the NFL, you need your backs to have vision and a running start toward the line. That doesn't happen in the read option. (Of course if you run the read option out of the pistol formation like Washington does, that would be closer to running in the traditional way) Also the best rushing attacks in the NFL, all have fullbacks leading the way. Clearly something we have missed ever since Hoover retired.

I'm a little surprised that many want to hire a guy who runs the read option as his main offense, right after wasting away this year running the exact same thing. Have we learn nothing from this season?

Also, he most certainly will run the Oregon offense here in Carolina.

as i just mentioned, he's run that against monte kiffin and vic fangio quite well already.